A wide variety of absorbent catamenial tampons have long been known in the art. Most currently commercially available tampons are made from a tampon pledget which has been compressed into a substantially cylindrical form. Tampon pledgets of a variety of types and constructions have been described in the art. Prior to compression, the pledget may be rolled, spirally wound, folded, or assembled as a rectangular pad of absorbent material. Tampons made from a generally rectangular pledget of absorbent material as well as tampons made from rolled absorbent material have been popular and successful in the market. The absorbent catamenial tampons now in use typically comprise absorbent members which are compressed to a generally cylindrical or “bullet” shaped form.
First time use of these currently available tampons is often a very difficult and traumatic experience especially for a young woman or girl. The insertion process is often painful and cannot easily be accomplished because she may not be sufficiently familiar with her body. First time trying of tampons may also be messy because the user is usually menstruating. The additional time needed to insert a tampon for the first time during such menstruation has been found to be a source of anxiety among many inexperienced tampon users.
Practicing tampon insertion during non-menstrual times has not been practical for several reasons. Currently available absorbent tampons are not designed to be worn during non-menstrual times in a woman's cycle and such use would not be in accordance with labeling instructions for these tampons. Additionally, removal of a dry or nearly dry tampon is quite uncomfortable as the absorbent material sticks to the vaginal tissues causing pain.
Because of these difficulties, tampon usage has often required a significant degree of perseverance during the learning process. This learning process is often associated with an underlying fear of a painful or uncomfortable experience. It has been found during development of the present invention that many women do not become regular tampon users because of the difficulties associated with the learning process. This is so even though many of these same women indicate a willingness or desire to use tampons because of the advantages such products offer these women over other forms of menstrual protection.
A need, therefore, exists to provide products which may be used by first time or novice tampon users. These products ideally should facilitate establishment of an insertion routine that a given user finds comfortable in a minimum amount of time and with little or no discomfort during this learning process.
Some attempts have been made in the prior art to provide tampon kits. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,827,251 issued to Moder et al. describes generally a feminine sanitary protection kit having a pantiliner and a vaginal insertion device. A tampon may be included with the packages described in the Moder et al. patent. The packages of products described in Moder et al. however, are unsuitable for use as a tampon learner kit of the present invention. Moder et al. describes only tampons of the “regular,” “super,” and “super plus” absorbency ranges. For reasons more fully described herein, these higher absorbency tampons are particularly unsuited for preferred learner kits of the present invention. Additionally, the products described in the Moder et al. patent fail to provide kits which have some of the learning and insertion aids of preferred kits of the present invention such as a mirror, an insertion guide, or a bonus product offering.
An attempt in the prior art to provide an insertion guide is described generally in U.S. Pat. No. 6,071,259 issued to Steiger et al. The Steiger et al. patent generally describes an optional inserter for digital tampons which is described as useful as a training device for new users. The device described in the Steiger et al. reference, however, lacks the advantages of the insertion guide of the present invention. For example, the Steiger et al. device provides no assistance to a user in properly orienting the tampon for insertion. In other words, no assistance is provided by way of assisting the user in achieving an optimal insertion angle, depth, etc.